Sharma Charm
by Aeilde Light
Summary: Alina is a Ravenclaw chaser with an unusual past ready to play against Gryffindor in the big match, but she is caught off gaurd by their new Keeper, because he happens to be awful. this is just a one shot written for a member of my Head Canon group.


**A/N: the OC Alina Sharma was created by a friend of mine, and to make this story a little more interesting to read, I should elaborate a little, Alina Sharma is supposed to be the love child of an affair between Narcissa Malfoy and a Muggle man, making her a half-blood in this story. I decided her muggle father never knew about her and that her mother gave her up for adoption (and likely passed it off as a miscarriage to her husband).**

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"Sharma!"

Alina snapped her head up and looked at the Quidditch captain. She had been concentrating on what sort of plays might be best to use against the Gryffindors in the match they were just about to play.

"You sure your arm's fully healed up? You only got out of the hospital wing yesterday..." He looked to her, concerned. She had managed to pop her arm out of her shoulder socket last practice. The captain was likely equally worried his star chaser wouldn't be able to perform, and that his good friend may hurt herself.

"Yes, Jones, I'm fine. That Quaffle isn't going anywhere once I get a hold of it!" she grinned at him and her team cheered. Originally it had been odd being the only girl on the Ravenclaw team, but all these guys were like brothers to her now, family, and there was little she wouldn't do for them.

"Alright then, let's go out there and beat those Gryffindors!" he raised his broom high and turned, leaving the locker room and heading out to the pitch. Alina was glad she had found a place here, at Hogwarts. When she was little, she hadn't had anyone close to her. She had been put up for adoption soon after she was born and grew up in an orphanage, she had no idea who her real family might be, whether she was muggleborn or half-blood (though she suspected the latter was the case: it wasn't uncommon for a witch or wizard to fall for a muggle and then have things not work out when magic came into the picture), but she had never let that hold her back. She always managed to find friends, regardless where she was due to her magnetic, outgoing personality. She was quick to make friends and quick to protect them as well.

"Ha, look! There go the delicate birdies! Hope they don't get squashed."  
Alina turned fiercely toward their antagonist, already knowing who it was before seeing him.

"Care to repeat your comment Malfoy?" she snarled at him, brandishing her wand. Immediately her team sprang into action, not attacking Draco, but holding her back from hurting him.

"Alina! The game! You can't go kill Malfoy and still fly today! Just ignore him; we have a game to win." Jones struggled to say while trying to hold her back from Draco. Alina went still. She kept glaring at Draco, but let her friends lead the rest of the way down to the Quidditch pitch.

"I really hate that guy. I can't put my finger on it, but he just rubs me the wrong way!" she fumed.

"Don't we all?" Jones sighed in reply, "don't worry about him, Alina, worry about Gryffindor's new keeper."

"She doesn't even have to worry about him. We've seen him play, Weasley's an awful keeper. It'll be a miracle if he stays on his broom the whole match." One of her teammates called back. Alina thought on this. During all the previous Gryffindor matches this year she had been held up for some reason or another (homework, detention, horrible jinx mix from a hallway fight with that awful, bitchy Slytherin girl…stuff like that), and so she had never seen the new Gryffindor keeper in action. She had heard he was close friends with Potter (and many people seemed to think it was the only reason he got on the team), and she had of course heard of the Weasleys (who hadn't at their school? They were in almost every year), but she was curious about this Weasley, the one who would be trying to block her goals today.

She stepped onto the pitch and was glad to hear the cheers and screaming of her house supporters. She waved to them all, smiling brightly, her run in with Malfoy already forgotten. At a signal from Jones, she mounted her broom and flew into the air, taking her position as lead chaser. She glared Katie Bell in the eye, each fighting a sort of psychological warfare on the other, promising to be the winner no matter what. The whistle blew and the quaffle lifted into the air. Alina darted up and snatched it right out of Katie's fingers, and as she flew away, a sense of spiteful pride filled her at getting the quaffle first.  
Alina swept back and forth toward the goal posts, passing the quaffle back and forth, and dodging a bludger. She caught the quaffle being passed from her teammate and rushed to the goal rings. There sat a rather put out and nervous looking redhead, who was more than a little green in the face. He looked a bit pathetic, so much so that she almost felt a little bad punching the quaffle past him and into the ring, almost. It was a game, and she was determined to help her team win. She shook it off and rejoined the game.

The Ravenclaws were leading by almost fifty points, in no small way due to Alina's flying (and their opponents poor keeper), and each new goal elicited a cheer from one end of the stadium and a groan from the other. Suddenly the crowd gasped and fell silent. She turned to see her team seeker and Potter in a death defying nose dive, racing for the snitch hovering inches above the ground. She took advantage of the sudden still to grab the quaffle and run it through the goal in a final, futile effort. The crowd cheered loudly and she looked up to see Potter doing a victory lap, her own team seeker sulking away. Even though her team had scored far more goals then the Gryffindors, it hadn't been enough to cover the point gain from the snitch.

She landed next to her team and kicked at the ground, dejectedly. They changed out of their Quidditch robes quietly, no one wanting to be the first to speak.

"I know it's disheartening to lose, but we are still having a fantastic season, and we only lost by seventy points or so." Jones told his team. It honestly wasn't a bad loss given the snitch had gotten Gryffindor one hundred and fifty points, but it was the first game they had lost all season. The team muttered in mild agreement and made their way up to the castle.

Alina stopped suddenly; she'd left her wand in the changing room. She waved her friends on and headed back. With her wand back, she started toward the castle again, but ran into someone.

"Oh, sorry," he grunted. She looked him over. It was the new Gryffindor keeper, Ron weasley. Now that they were on the ground, she sort of recognized him from the hallways and the Great Hall. He was a year ahead of her and she had a few classes with his sister Ginny. He also looked, if it was possible, worse than he had up in the air. Not sick, just like he was sad or disappointed.

"What's your deal? You guys won. Go celebrate or something." She eyed him.

"Yeah, no thanks to me though. I was stuck up there like a scarecrow. They may as well just replace me with one, it'd prolly block the goals better…" he mumbled to his feet dejectedly and turned to leave. Alina watched him walk, a bit surprised.

"Why do you play Quidditch? You don't seem to like it much," she asked him, catching up to walk with him. Her friendly instincts were starting to kick in. even though she should be aloof to this Gryffindor, whose team had just beaten hers, she couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the guy. He seemed like he needed someone to talk to.

"I like Quidditch, but not when all those people are watching, criticizing every move I make and laughing when I mess up. It's awful," he said softly, obviously a bit embarrassed, but his depression over rode the humiliation.

"Well, who cares what they all think of you? It doesn't really matter in the long run," she put her arm around him comfortingly. Even though he was just barely taller than her (which was uncommon in itself) and older than her, the gesture felt right.

"I know I should think that way, I'm a Gryffindor. But sometimes it's hard to just not care." He looked at her.

"Well, regardless, you should be happy. Your team won the game! But I can promise next time us Ravenclaw's won't let you guys win so easy!" she grinned and punched his shoulder playfully, trying to lighten the mood. He grinned at her and rubbed his arm where she had hit him, likely a bit hardr than she had intended.

"You call that easy? I'd hate to see you guys really trying then!" he laughed. "Wanna head up to the castle together?"

"Sure. Let's do that." She smiled at him as he put his arm over her shoulders. The weight of his arm made her feel warm inside and as they walked and talked, she was already trying to think of a way to ask the shy Gryffindor out.


End file.
